Feeding egg shells to chickens?

[rosemarythyme]

No real reason to rinse it for the compost, just toss them in there.

My mom used to use eggshells like they were those fertilizing sticks for houseplants, all our houseplants had little bits of eggshells "planted" around in them.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I use to feed eggshell to the birds. As they would sit on the counter in a coffee can for a week until feeding we'd microwave the shells for a minute before storage to keep bacteria and smell down. Now that I use oyster shell the birds only get the occasional overly dirty or cracked egg. Toss on the ground to break open and they go nuts for it. All other eggshells go to the compost bucket under the sink then to one of the bins outside these days.

 

[lazy gardener]

IMO, the bottom line is this: Egg shells are far too valuable to ever toss in the trash if one is a gardener, or has a flock of chickens.!!!!

 

[donrae]

IMO, the bottom line is this: Egg shells are far too valuable to ever toss in the trash if one is a gardener, or has a flock of chickens.!!!!

Yes! If not to to the birds, then to the plants.

 

[Weehopper]

Not really necessary to bake them. For those who do do that though, about a half a minute in the microwave will dry them nicely.

 

[BigBirdRick]

I am with Tina above (#5), I scramble crushed shells into the girls eggs, as a matter of they had "crunchy scrambled eggs" this morning.

Other times I put the cracked shells in a bowl, cover them with a damp paper towel and put them into the fridge, until I crush and add to their morning "breakfast".

This mornings crunchy eggs and fruits and veggies!

 

[Beekissed]

I know I've read of people baking egg shells and feeding them to your chickens. Is it necessary to bake them, or can I just crush them up and feed them raw? I hate to waste all those shells, but I don't want to bake them if I don't have to.
Thanks for any input.

You don't have to...just give them to the chickens as is. Anything else is just a waste of time and effort and avails nothing.

 

[Mommachick87]

I just gave my girls the eggshells that we have been saving. I just crushed them up with cracked corn, broccoli, and meal worms for an added treat. One of my girls grabbed a piece of shell, dropped it, shook her head and left it lol so we will see what happens lol

 

[jamfarris]

I've been tossing my egg shells to the birds for years. Initially, I was rinsing them to get all of the albumen out of them, drying them, then heating in microwave or oven, then crushing them very fine. Then, I decided it was a waste to wash all of the protein of any albumen out of the shells and simply dried them, heated them, and crushed them. Then... for the last 2 years, I simply toss the shells into a bowl. When I head out to the coop, I grab the bowl, toss the shells in the run, stomp on them, and continue on my merry way. My girls eat the shells. No egg eaters here. No issues with bacterial contamination. You will hear everything from: "never give egg shells to your birds. It will turn them into egg eaters." "The shells must be finely ground up so your birds will not be able to tell that they are egg shells, and they must have all of the albumen rinsed out of them, and be sterilized so your birds don't get sick." to: "It's a waste of time to give egg shells to chickens b/c they can't absorb the calcium from them". All of these statements are false. So, IMO it's simply good sense to turn those shells over to the birds so they can recycle the nutrients in them.

I've heard you shouldn't feed store bought egg shells to your chickens. Is this true?

 

[Debbie292d]

I've heard you shouldn't feed store bought egg shells to your chickens. Is this true?

True as they could carry something and we don't want to bring anything from other chickens to our chickens. Most of us who raise chickens don't buy eggs though. If you want to feed them store-bought eggs, I'd just bake them to be on the safe side.